


Cascade

by TheKillingJar



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fictober 2016, Fusion, Hurt/Comfort, Power Imbalance, Power Struggle, Romance, S.S Misery, They get better though, Unhealthy Relationships, fictober2016, jaspis - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-22 22:43:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8304001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheKillingJar/pseuds/TheKillingJar
Summary: The deep green sea was a coffin filled with spiteful words and a struggle to gain the upper hand. It wasn't any worse than being trapped in a mirror though. Being sealed away in solitude is a nightmare Lapis doesn't wish to return to.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Another hastily done one-shot for fictober. This one's probably worse than the last. Definitely not pretty or dreamlike as I prefer my writing to be. Probably riddled with mistakes too. Week two prompts: domestic, planetary, spark.

_"Oh the air was shining_  
 _Shining like a wedding ring_  
 _Barbed like sex_  
 _I felt ten thousand volts_  
 _My chest was full of eels_  
 _Pushing through my usual skin_  
 _I opened up new wounds_  
 _Pouting, shouting_ "

_~Cascade, Siouxsie and the Banshees_

* * *

 

It stirred deep within her gem. A thisley sensation that made the light manifestation of her body feel set in the course of hypothermia. A maelstrom of crazed choler released in tsunamis. Lapis Lazuli was accustomed to emptiness. To boundless melancholia...but what she felt now was frightening. She never knew emotions could cause physically painful pinpricks of searing ice to whip at her body.

  
Her only comfort was the acknowledgement that someone else felt the exact same excruciating anguish.

  
She pulled Jasper from her systematic hourly thrashing for inspection.

Gems suck in air around them, not necessarily the oxygen that humans required, but air in general to speak. Thus it is not lack of oxygen that forced Jasper into a fit of heavy panting. To choke while attempting to swallow up as much air as possible. Lapis watched in morbid curiosity as the large chest and broad shoulders of the once proud warrior heaved. The constant struggle without rest and the immense pressure of being deep below water is a deadly combination for gem like Jasper. A gem who has rarely even bore witness to water. The Quartz Soldier was hyperventilating due to pain and exhaustion. A physiological response no gem should even be aware they were capable of.

Jasper's head snapped upward to greet her cell mate. In defiance she offered Lapis a tight grin. Considering the state she was in, Lapis found the gesture deeply disturbing. The blue gem bristled in return, not content with someone under her control inciting fear in her. To even the score she tightened Jasper's side of the liquid shackles. Shackles that bound them to one another.

"Will you ever tire of your games, brat?" The question was spat in a coat of pure venom. Her usual gravely grown even raspier. It is only then Lapis realized the rumors spoken on Home World about the resilience of Jasper fighters were all true.

"No. Not as long as I still have something to protect. Not that you would understand."

  
Jasper flinched violently. Immediately after she growled. Even the blue-court gem would admit that her last comment was a low blow.

  
" **HOW DARE YOU**?! You who have betrayed your Diamond! You-!"

"Betrayed?" The words were quiet yet shacky, hinting at the long brewing storm to come. "A-all I ever wanted was to return home. To return to her. She who never bothered to search for me! I was _replaced_ in her court! Then she foisted me onto you to return to this miserable planet to destroy it, along with the sole person in the entire star system who cared about me!" Her rant stopped short as her sobs were a hindrance. What followed was a typhoon of hatred released all at once. Jasper was the solitary target out of convenience, only a fraction of it was truly meant for her.

"You are the most defective soldier I've laid eyes on!"

  
Just like that Jasper was once again buried beneath the mental weight of their fusion and into watery depths. It was so wet because Lapis was the stronger of the two. The mental scape was hers to bend.

  
_"So weak!"_

  
Lapis' voice could no longer reach Jasper's eardrums but they were loud and clear in her mind.

_"You failed your Diamond!"_

  
Liquid tentacles constricted. Water whips bit into her her form. There was no escaping the relentless words of abuse. Stuck in a state of fusion two minds became one. Despite Jasper's screaming and attempts to hush her Lazuli's barge of insults continued. As did her attacks.

  
_"She's dead because of you!"_

That's it. the torture and mental duress nearly forced her physical form to retreat into her gem. Instead, she submerged herself in oceans slumber. Lapis Lazuli won the fight, but Jasper's last thought before sleep claimed her was a vow to not lose the war.

A sparse moment of reprieve was granted to the Lapis as her prisoner fell unconscious. She sighed, unsure of what to do now. It was odd. At one point she was not used to constantly having the Quartz Soldier in her head. Now her lone thoughts seemed unfamiliar. So much change in the span of a few months, she mused. The blue gem never imagined the other would have such an affect on her.

With nothing left to do at the moment she peered through Malachite's eyes to see all the aquatic life. The brilliantly colored ones she saw when she tried to use Earth's oceans to get back home do not live anywhere near the sea floor. Still, she enjoyed seeing the unusual and often grotesque creatures that roamed the darkness of the sea. The self illuminating ones quickly became her favorite.

Malachite's huge hand waved happily at them.

"Most of them can't see you," Jasper scoffed. Lapis jumped, suddenly unsure how much time passed as she toyed with fish. "The ones that do won't remember you for more than fifteen seconds." The mountainous gem's voice was garbled with fatigue. "This useless rock only breeds the stupidest of beings."

Lapis sighed. "I can't argue there. I never had hope for this place."

"I suppose we've finally found some common ground."

"...I suppose." The smallest of smiles formed on her azure lips.

Jasper blinked before a smile of her own over came her features. "You know, if I'm a failed soldier then your a failed diplomat."

"At least no one died when I couldn't complete my mission." Her response was bitter, the bite of her captives' words were sharp.

"Not yet anyway."

For the first time in months a semi-comfortable silence consumed them.

"It didn't have to be like this. I tried so hard to be accommodating to you. I would have never put an aristocrat in a cell by choice."

"Your goal was to eliminate Steven. I don't care how _accommodating_ you were. Nothing would have changed."

"All this for Rose?" The striped gem's eyes harden. " With such a comfy life it's almost unbelievable that you of all people would turn traitor."

"I saw Rose Quartz as well, you know that! And that human child is not her, he's-!"

"Enough!" Jasper was against her before she could bat an eye. Then she felt it, the shift in power that came with pointed incisors piercing her neck. If she were human blood would have poured from her in rivets. Hot breath and saliva pressed against her throat. She perceived those attributes more that she did the pain.

Something within her pulled back like elastic. Two sparks formed, one in her chest and another in her stomach. They fizzle blissfully before their dazzling explosion. Something akin to an Earthling orgasm. While her thoughts were still her own Lapis worried she would be forced to retreat into her gem.

What ends up taking place is equilibrium. They conjoin into a perfect amalgamation of each other. Malachite blinked before she flexed, limbs entirely her own for the first time. No Lapis Lazuli or Jasper. Just her. Just her own thoughts swimming in her head. Her smile is that of twisted elation. Those precious moments were fleeting but _oh stars_ she loved every second of it.

When Lapis forced the separation they both struggled for breath without realizing it. Remnants of each others powers surge freely through them both like liquid electricity. The euphoria of blending perfectly into one gem lingers.

"Th-that was, that was-"

  
" _Incred_ _ible_." Laps supplied, though there really were no words to describe it.

"Yes!"

  
The strength garnered from their joined forces was amazing, but there was also the finished creation of Malachite. Becoming one made an entirely different entity. A clean slate, a new beginning. Malachite had never been trapped within a mirror for over five millennia nor did she see her Diamond shattered by rebel forces right before her eyes. She was a fresh start. A ray of hope that the two gems had lost. Something that could easily become addictive.

Jasper hovered over her before slowly leaning down. Terror and elation swarmed through Lapis Lazuli. She expected another bite, guiltily wishing to lose herself into Malachite again. Her mind went black when Jasper's lips found her own instead.

  
Gems were not required to physically eat to sustain themselves. The mouth served to convey emotion and communication through speech and the like. They were not formed naturally with parts for reproduction. They were created in the ground after all. The mouth did nicely for giving and receiving physical affection. The ancient Earthlings would eventually refer to it as "kissing" and claim it for their own. In biting and kissing Jasper had thoughts she wanted to share.

  
Before Lapis was able to reign in her thoughts her mind flashed to the past. To other kisses she shared with her Diamond.

 _The giantess gem possessed features just as expansive as the rest of her. Where her deep blue lips kissed they devoured. Lapis' face, stomach, back..._  


Jasper retracted, her face colored in embarrassment. The blue gem doesn't believe the expression suited her. The connection between them allowed her to invade Lapis' privacy without trying.

  
"...I guess you are even higher ranked than I thought."

  
Lapis would have screamed at her if she had not sensed that it was meant more as a way to lighten the horribly confusing mood than as insult.

"I didn't stay by her side to get myself higher on the pyramid or even out of devotion..."

  
Jasper's plump mouth moves to say something like "I know" but she doesn't. Instead she gives Lapis personal memories of her own.

 _She saw herself through Jasper's eyes. A sense of awe that did not come from herself overwhelmed her. They were on Earth during the rebellion. She sat primly beside her Diamond the Pearl. Eyes did not stray from delicate traits or the glistening wings made water, a scarce substance Jasper hardly came into contact with back on their home planet. The urge to protect something as rare as her..._  


Lapis stared up at the hulking form before her. "We met before?"

  
Jasper's laugh was dry, holding no mirth. "Of course gem royalty wouldn't remember a brief encounter with a soldier from another court...but I never forgot. We fighters are programmed for battle and protection. You would have been the ideal gem to guard. When Yellow Diamond assigned me to escort you back to Earth it was..."

  
"Exactly what you hoped for."

  
"Yeah."

Lapis didn't have time to spare fantasizing about the "what ifs". The thought of Earths destruction, of _Steven's_ demise, being the price of a hypothetical possibility for Jasper and her to be happy together on their planet made her head throb.

  
"But you failed. We failed. Time and time again."

  
"Guess we're stuck being failures together."

She could only laugh. When did her life spiral so out of control?

  
"Don't think I'll make living down here easy."

  
"I wouldn't have it any other way." _Because we both have things to repent for._

  
The game of dominance began again.

Like humans gems, were social creatures who thrived on interaction. Whether the contact between the gems were as soft as a lovers or the strike of an enemy they were cherished. Neither of them needed to suffocate with the creeping forlorn emotions again.

  
Lapis especially held the companionship of Jasper in high value. The orange gem needed her, unlike her Diamond. Jasper's caresses as well as her attacks were genuine and held no ulterior motives. Lapis never did appreciate having to watch her tongue while in the presence of her leader or the way her docile voice constantly hid a threat.

_"What a disgusting display." Blue Diamond's voice was soft, ever elegant, barely portraying her repulsion. "All this needless fusion taking place after the first mistake."  After the appearance of garnet gems of all variations and courts had been fusing for the sake of testing the action._

_"Without doubt it has its advantages," her voice was melodious and sage-like at ounce. "The endless possibilities of combining different attributes of gems to make the strongest of soldiers. Won't you agree, my dearest one?" She inclined her head in Lapis' direction._

_Lapis was unsure if her leader even bothered to look at her when she posed the question. This had little to due with the fact the Diamond's pretty veil kept her eyes unseen. Oh but Lapis had the honor of seeing them on more than one occasion._

_The smaller gem hesitated to respond. She didn't care what others did but upsetting her leader was an entirely other matter._

_"It has brought everyone from all courts closer together. What with the rebellion...Perhaps it is what we need."_

_"The mixing of courts, the mixing of castes..." The Diamond scowled, an action so unladylike that she almost never displayed. "Is this to be our new era?"_

_"If it displeases you then I shall pray to the stars as well as every moon it does not come to be._

_"My sweet Lapis Lazuli! So unique, so versatile. To think my sister once bragged how superior her Rose Quartz minions were. How they were the best gems beside the Diamonds to be created," her lips curved, "Look where that got her"_

_Lapis squirmed in discomfort._

_"Something wrong, sweetling?"_

_"N-nothing! Nothing is ever wrong when I'm with you. It's just thought...I don't think it would be best to speak of the recently shattered in such a way."_

_"It is best that you don't think, my dear. Turquoise used to think. You remember what happened to her, correct?"_

_Lapis gulped down her fear. "Correct, please forgive me your majesty."_

Lapis shook herself from the memory, grateful for the first time to not be back back at court.

Jasper's acts of anger and joy were honest, she had no need to manipulate her fellow captive. For now that was all Lapis could ask for. Earnest and intentional through and through. Be it running her thick fingers through Lapis' hair or aiming an upper cut her way it does little to truly threaten her. Nothing she can't handle. No action of either variety ever left the ultramarine gem questioning. Jasper has long lost the energy to be manipulative. No, she's grown far too attached to her Lapis Lazuli. 

* * *

_"Oh love, like liquid falling_   
_Falling in cascades_   
_Oh lovelorn victims_   
_Laughing in cascades"_

_~Cascade, Siouxsie and the Banshees_

**Author's Note:**

> It's canon that all gems were created to serve a purpose. I've seen a lot of fans debate what Lapis' was suppose to be. A messenger of some sort seemed most likely due to her ability of flight and there appears to be a silhouette of her in the flashback of Sapphire and Ruby's first meeting. Since then I've been pretty taken with the notion that Lapis was a noblewoman much like Sapphire was.


End file.
